IF statement: how to leave cell blank if condition is false (“” does not work)

calendar_today Asked Sep 12, 2013
thumb_up 44 upvotes
history Updated April 16, 2026

Question posted 2013 · +45 upvotes

I would like to write an IF statement, where the cell is left blank if the condition is FALSE. Note that, if the following formula is entered in C1 (for which the condition is false) for example:

 =IF(A1=1,B1,"")

and if C1 is tested for being blank or not using =ISBLANK(C1), this would return FALSE, even if C1 seems to be blank. This means that the =IF(A1=1,B1,"") formula does not technically leave the cells blank if the condition is not met.

Any thoughts as to a way of achieving that? Thanks,

Accepted answer +44 upvotes

Unfortunately, there is no formula way to result in a truly blank cell, "" is the best formulas can offer.

I dislike ISBLANK because it will not see cells that only have "" as blanks. Instead I prefer COUNTBLANK, which will count "" as blank, so basically =COUNTBLANK(C1)>0 means that C1 is blank or has "".

If you need to remove blank cells in a column, I would recommend filtering on the column for blanks, then selecting the resulting cells and pressing Del. After which you can remove the filter.

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